Participants will learn the fundamental design and construction techniques used to create linkages between tabular health databases with geographic identifiers. The workshop will also review key data sources available to health researchers in British Columbia specifically designed for research in human health and well-being and discuss how these data might also be used for research using GIS. During the afternoon session, participants will have the opportunity to work with instructors creating health data maps in a GIS and engaging in group discussion as to possible usages of GIS for exploring the spatial pattern of disease and health outcomes. Upon completion of this workshop, participants will have gained familiarity with GIS and its strengths for research into human health and well-being as well as information pertaining to the access and availability of data for health-related research in British Columbia.

Instructor

Nathanial J. Bell, PhD Candidate, Simon Fraser University

Prerequisite

Attendees should have working knowledge of the Excel and/or Access platforms of the Microsoft Office Suite.

Audience

People working with health data that have no experience using GIS but would like to learn how it can be applied in their research.

Day one of the workshop focused on spatial analysis of disease data in a GIS environment, spatial statistics, and analysis scenarios for cluster analysis and cluster detection. Topics covered included detection of clustering of disease in historical disease data, focused cluster analysis, and spatial cluster detection. Day two of the workshop covered prospective space-time disease analysis and surveillance. A combined format of lectures, software demonstrations, and hands-on exercises were used to provide a balance of theoretical understanding and practical skills development. Upon completion of this workshop, participants were able describe statistical concepts underlying disease surveillance methods, summarize theoretical and operational issues involved in the use of space-time disease surveillance methods in a variety of analytic scenarios, and perform, parameterize, and interpret, space-time disease surveillance analysis using SaTScan software.

Instructors

Colin Robertson, PhD Candidate, University of Victoria.
Dr. Ying MacNab, Associate Professor, School of Population and Public Health, UBC
Dr. Andrew Lawson, Professor, The Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina.

Prerequisite
Attendees should have knowledge of basic statistics.

Audience
This workshop was targeted to health geomatics professionals, public health workers, researchers, and epidemiologists.

		

July 27th and July 28th
Particular emphasis was placed on environmental exposure assessment. Presentations were integrated with working examples in ESRI ArcGIS, whenever possible, to provide hands on experience and opportunities to apply theoretical concepts. Participants learned about spatial health data and area socio-economic data available in BC, spatial exposure assessment methods, analytical approaches, and limitations of spatial epidemiology.

July 29th
The RIF is an extension to ESRI ArcGIS for rapid analysis of routinely collected health and population data. The RIF can be used for risk analysis and disease mapping. For more information or to download RIF go to: http://www.sahsu.org/related_studies.php#RIF

Prerequisite - Participants are required to have a working knowledge of ESRI ArcGIS and basic statistical regression techniques to conduct in class exercises on the 27th and 28th.

Instructors

Perry Hystad, PhD Candidate, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia

Dr. Linda Beale, Research Fellow, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Imperial College of London

Audience - Health researchers with some experience using GIS and who would like to expand their knowledge of spatial epidemiology.

This workshop will also provide an overview of the access policy / application process at Population Data BC. Upon completion of this workshop, participants will have detailed information on working with administrative data, opportunities and challenges, and the resources available to help them understand and analyze the data.

Instructor - Dr. Kimberlyn McGrail, Faculty, Centre for Health Services and Policy Research and Assistant Professor, School of Population and Public Health, UBC

download presentation

Prerequisite - None

Audience - Students, principal investigators and research analysts who are now or are thinking about using administrative data for their research.

The goal of this workshop is to encourage participants already working with geographic information systems (GIS) to identify new strategies for developing or enhancing ongoing health-related research in British Columbia. Instructors will provide detailed information on key spatial analysis tools currently used for analyzing disease and health outcomes within a GIS as well as data sources for research in human health and well-being. Upon completion of this workshop, participants will have been provided with detailed information on core knowledge in applying geomatics to the study of disease distributions and health outcomes and will be able to use this information for new or ongoing research within their own agencies.

Download workshop presentation (14.3Mb pdf)

Instructor - Nathanial Bell, PhD Candidate, Simon Fraser University

Content Development - Nathanial Bell, PdD Candidate, Simon Fraser University; Dr. Weimin Hu, Director of HuSun Consulting; Christy Lightowlers, Lead of Education and Training, Population Data BC; Dr. Ying MacNab, Associate Professor, School of Population and Public Health, UBC, and Dr. Eleanor Setton, Carex Canada.

Prerequisite
Attendees should have strong working knowledge of GIS software. Knowledge of basic statistics is recommended, but not essential.

Audience
Anyone (students, researchers, analysts, health practitioners, health professionals) mapping health data.